Do You Believe?
by FanfictionShadow
Summary: During a fight, Robin is asked a very strange question. Later that night, he ponders it. What will this lead to, and why did they ask this? Most importantly, does Robin believe?


**I really don't know where this came from, but I do not plan to continue this. Sorry, it's just a one-shot. Hope you like it though.**

"Do you believe?"

Robin blinked at the question. Why ask that in the middle of a fight? And why _that_ question? Did he believe in _what_?

He couldn't think about this now. He was being watched by Batman. He could not fail.

But after the fight and much later in the night, as Robin struggled to fall asleep since he had a test in the morning and he could not fail it, his mind was drawn back to the strange question that was asked during his fight. He mentally ran through what the question could be asking. There were many different things that this question could mean.

One of the main definitions of this question was did he believe in a god. Well yes, he supposed he did believe in a greater being, but did he believe in God, or in multiple gods? Well, he supposed that he believed in one greater force. That greater force could have lesser forces that help out, that maybe are part of it, but for the most part, Robin believed in one God, one greater force.

What was another thing that the question could mean? Well, it could ask if he believed in any of the things like true love, miracles, or magic. He definitely believed that magic existed, as he fought next to a magician, but did he believe _in_ it? At the end of the day, Robin had to say that he did not believe _in_ magic, he did not trust it to be lifesaving or too important.

True love. Belief in that depended on the person. Robin knew that his parents loved each other, they had years before him, but they had loved others before that. Was that true love? No. So how could they have true love for each other? They still had spots in their hearts for others, they loved others with their hearts as well. They didn't only love each other. So what was true love? To Robin, true love depended on the person and their thoughts on love. True love could be real for one person, but not another. Therefore, Robin had to conclude that as for right then, he didn't believe in true love.

Miracles. Ever since Robin's parents died, miracles disappeared. If there truly was such thing as a miracle, it would have happened when his family fell, when his extended family gave him away, when he was sent to juvie for months. No miracle happened then. So why would one happen now? No, Robin only believed in coincidences. Miracles didn't exist.

Anything else the question could mean? It could mean did he believe in equality, any equality. One of the biggest inequalities was ethnic inequality. He himself had been subject to ethnic inequality when he still lived with the circus as a gypsy. Robin had never understood why people would hate others just because they looked different or lived different. Wasn't everyone human? So yes, he believed in ethnic equality. He treated people who weren't gypsies with the same respect that they treated their "own kind".

Next, racial equality. Robin was quick to say that he believed in racial equality. After all, it was basically the same thing as ethnic equality, except this one was about the outside color of someone instead of their birthplace. People might look different on the outside, but again, they were all human. It was what was on the inside that mattered and should be judged.

Gender equality. Robin grew up in a circus where half of the most daring acts were women. Of course he believed in gender equality. LGBT equality, well, everyone was different, right? Just because someone liked their own gender or wanted to be the other gender, that didn't mean that they were supposed to be hated and feared. Robin couldn't say no to LGBTQ equality, or he would be such a hypocrite. And social equality, that had the same thought process as ethnic and racial equality. Most equalities, Robin realized, were based off the same principles. Did this mean that any equality Robin thought of, he believed in it?

Wait.

Legal equality.

The code that he and Batman fought for. Everyone should be tried before law.

But because of that one equality, the inmates of Arkham Asylum were able to slaughter Gotham.

Robin immediately was struck with what the question really meant. He believed in all those other equalities because they focused on the outside of people, and Robin preferred to judge people based on their actions, not looks. Legal equality, on the other hand, was made to judge the actions of people by the people.

The people could be bought. The people could be sold. The people could believe in legal equality to the extreme, and no other equality there was.

Beneath the Robin mask, deep down, there was Dick Grayson. Or was Dick Grayson the mask for Robin? People judged Dick Grayson based on what he was on the outside. People judged Robin by his actions. And the corrupt people who made up the majority of the world judged both without knowing him or his actions.

Legal equality let the Joker get off scot-free every time he went on a killing spree. His "jokes" and "pranks" on Gotham were written off as "legal insanity." The same happened to the Mad Hatter, Jervis Tetch. And Harley Quinn. And Zsasz. Every inmate at Arkham deserved the death sentence…

But because of legal equality, they didn't get it. After all, legal equality couldn't judge all of them under the same rules as the rest, they were insane! They needed their own rules for the legal activities to be equal to those who weren't insane.

Robin- or was it Dick Grayson? – bolted upright in bed, panting. He had to find the opponent he had been fighting. He had to tell them what he figured out.

He had to tell them that he didn't believe.

And he had to help them fix that. By any means necessary.

Dick Grayson- or was it Robin? No, it was definitely Dick Grayson now – left a note for Batman. It was started with three simple words, the same words that started this all.

 _Do you believe?_

 _I do._

 _So there's no more Robin to the Batman. Dick Grayson is all that's left._

 _-_ _Dick_

 **Please review, and as always, I welcome constructive criticism and turn away flames. All of my wording is deliberate, and sorry for the serious one-shot, but I hope it gave people something to think about. Thanks for reading!**


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